Personally, I think it's visually and functionally a step in the wrong direction. On top of that, performance is considerably worse. If they ever disable old.reddit.com, I'll probably stop using the site.
To avoid hyperbole, I'll list many of the same concrete elements others have.
- Page load MUCH slower.
- Information density is MUCH lower.
- Inlined ads between actual posts.
- Terribly ineffective use of linked images (they're massive rather than only on hover as one would get with RES)
It feels to me like Reddit embracing its "potential" as a clickbait factory ala buzfeed/instagram, over trying to encourage discussion and community per what I first found appealing about it.
Both of these things could have been perfectly fine implemented in the old design.
I find it especially annoying that the sidebar (with subreddit rules etc) appears to be gone?